Tough act that follows

The new Antonio Banderas movie “Take the Lead,” which opens Friday, is inspired by the story of Pierre Dulaine, an award-winning ballroom dancer who is the director of the Dancing Classrooms program in the New York City public schools. The program, which was profiled in the 2005 documentary “Mad Hot Ballroom,” teaches dancing to underprivileged fifth-graders.

But there are no adorable 10- and 11-year-olds learning the tango and Viennese waltz in “Take the Lead.”

The Dulaine played by Banderas instead volunteers to teach ballroom dancing to a group of New York high school students serving detention.

Though the students are skeptical of and even hostile to the impeccably mannered instructor, they are impressed with his determination and eventually embrace ballroom dancing. The kids even end up teaching him how to combine hip-hop with ballroom.

“It’s inspired by the essence -- the spirit -- of what the program is,” the real Dulaine explained. “The film has stretched it to involve 17-year-old high school students. But the reality of the movie is the challenges that I had convincing principals that ballroom dancing was not elitist and why the children could use ballroom dancing.”

He knows firsthand how it can change kids’ lives.

Dulaine, who was born in Palestine, began taking ballroom dancing lessons in England at age 14. “I spoke with a heavy accent and was shy and timid,” he recalled. Through the dancing, Dulaine said, he “learned to stand up straight and be confident.”

While appearing in the Broadway musical “Grand Hotel” in the early 1990s, Dulaine thought it was time to “give something back” to society. “I had free time during the day, so that is when I volunteered at a school,” he said.

The ballroom dance program, now in its 12th year, added 10 middle schools in the fall. “We have 120 schools in the five boroughs” of New York City, Dulaine said. “I have 42 teachers to go out and do the work for me. This year alone, we will teach 12,000 students.”

The program is branching out around the country. “I had a meeting in Los Angeles [last] Monday,” he said. “All being well, we’ll be in L.A. at the end of the year.”

-- Susan King